Inferno 5
Transcript
Inferno 5
., . I f 1 I ..- --. " ANCHOR BOOKS BY ROBERT NOTES & HOLLANDER JEAN HOLLANDER & BY ROBERT ----------.---.- A Division of Random House, Inc. New York INTRODUCTION TRANSLATED -_. INFERNO LJante A I tgntt:l T A. It 1 l' pA ~ tgrl.~~i ' e1 JEAN HOLLANDER Inc. NewYorcv ~ () C)o House, BOOKS of Random ANCHOR e1 NOTES BY ROBERT HOLLANDER BY ROBERT A Division INTRODUCTION TRANSLATED INFERNO . 111 ' ,%../ a l-, t t :;-'~ t, 1-3 16-20 4-15 121-138 112-120 109-1II 88-ro8 82-87 79-81 70/8 64-69 52-63 50-51 40-49 31-39 25-30 21-24 OUTLINE V roo-ro8 Love. . . Love. . . Love. . . : her litany of joy, woe Dante's reaction and Virgil's laconic question Dante's rumination and question to Francesca Francesca's second response: 121-126 despite the pain it will cause, she will speak 127-129 she and Paolo were reading of Lancelot in love 130-138 enflamed by the reading, they embraced coda: Francesca concludes, Paolo weeps, Dante faints proem: Minos judge of the damned Minos attempts to discourage Dante Virgil repeats his magical phrase (III.95"""'96) again, impressions of sound are the first Dante has the "hellscape": weeping, darkness, storm two similes: starlings and cranes Dante wants to know who are punished here; Virgil: Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra Helen, Achilles, Paris, Tristan, and many others Dante's piteous reaction and desire to speak he calls out to the pair of lovers simile: doves returning to nest Francesca's first speech: 88--96 her kind words for Dante's kindness 97--99 she is from Ravenna descent to the second Circle: the lustful INFERNO 9 Non impedir 10 suo fatale andare: vuolsi cosi cola dove si puote cio che si vuole, e piu non dim,andare." Or incomincian Ie dolenti note a farmisi sentire; or son venuto la dove molto pianto mi percuote. 24 27 E 'I duca mio a lui: "Perche pur gride? 1 27 24 21 18 21 18 "0 tu che vieni al doloroso ospizio," disse Minos a me quando mi vide, lasciando l'atto di cotanto offizio, "guarda com' entr e di cui tu ti fide; non t'inganni l'ampiezza de l'intrare!" IS IS 12 9 6 3 Sempre dinanzi a lui ne stanno molte: vanno a vicenda ciascuna al giudizio, dicono e odono e poi son giu volte. 12 Dico che quando l' anima mal nata li vien dinanzi, tutta si confessa; e quel conoscitor de Ie peccata 6 vede qual loco d'inferno e da essa; cignesi con la coda tante volte quantunque gradi vuol che giu sia messa. Stavvi Minos orribilmente, e ringhia: essamina Ie colpe ne l'intrata; giudica e manda secondo ch'avvinghia. Cosi discesi del cerchio primaio giu nel secondo, che men loco cinghia e tanto piu dolor, che punge a guaio. of agony. Now I have come where a great wailing beats upon me. Now I can hear the screams 'Hinder not his destin,ed journey. It is so willed where will and power are one, and ask no more.' 'beware how you come in and whom you trust. Don't let the easy entrance fool you.' And my leader to him: 'Why all this shouting? '0 you who come to this abode of pain,' said Minos when he saw me, pausing in the exercise of his high office, Always before him stands a crowd of them, going to judgment each in turn. They tell, they hear, and then are hurled down. how many circles down the soul must go. decides what place in Hell is fit for it, then coils his tail around himself to count I mean that when the ill-begotten soul stands there before him it confesses all, and that accomplished judge of sins There stands Minos, snarling, terrible. He examines each offender at the entrance, judges and dispatches as he encoils himself. down into the second, which girds a smaller space but greater agony to goad lament. Thus I descended trom the first circle ,; " H 92 I 36 Quando giungon davanti a la ruina, quivi Ie strida, il compianto, illamento; bestemmian quivi la virtU divina. 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 enno dannati i peccator carnali, che la ragion sommettono al talento. E come li stornei ne portan l' ali nel &eddo tempo, a schiera larga e piena, cosi quel fiato li spiriti mali di qua, di la, di giu, di su Ii mena; nulla speranza li conforta mai, non che di posa, ma di minor pena. E come i gru van cantando lor lai, faccendo in aere di se lunga riga, cosi vid' io venir, traendo guai, ombre portate da la dett briga; per ch'i' dissi: "Maestro, chi son quelle genti che I'aura nera si gastiga?" "La prima di color di cui novelle tu vuo' saper;' mi disse quelli allotta, "fu imperadrice di molte favelle. A vizio di lussuria fu si rotta, che libito fe licito in sua legge, per torre il biasmo in che era condotta. 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 Intesi ch'a cosi fatto tormento 33 33 30 La bufera infernal, che mai non resta, mena Ii spirti con la sua rapina; voltando e percotendo Ii molesta. I" ' . INFERNO se da contrari venti e combattuto. 10 venni in loco d' ogne luce muto, che mugghia come fa mar per tempesta, I 30 INFERNO to take away the blame she had incurred. 'She was so given to the vice of lechery she made lust licit in her law you would hear; he then replied, 'was empress over many torlgues. 'The first of them about whom shades lifted on that turbulence, so that I said: 'Master, who are these whom the black air lashes?' Just as cranes chant their mournful songs, making a long line in the air, thus I saw approach, heaving plaintive sighs, Here and there, down and up, it drives them. Never are they comforted by hope of rest or even lesser punishment. As, in cold weather, the wings of starlings bear them up in wide, dense flocks, so does that blast propel the wicked spirits. I undrstood that to such torment the carnal sinners are condemned, they who make reason subject to desire. Caught in that path of violence, they shriek, weep, and lament. Then how they curse the power of God! The hellish squall, which never rests, sweeps spirits in its headlong rush, tormenting, whirls and strikes them. which bellows as the sea in tempest tossed by conflicting winds. I reached a place mute of all light, V 'I,, I 94 I 75 78 l' cominciai: "Poeta, volontieri parlerei a que' due che 'nsieme vanno, e paion si al vento esser leggieri." Ed elli a me: "Vedrai quando saranno piu presso a noi; e tu allor Ii priega per quello amor che i mena, ed ei verranno." Si tosto come il vento a poi li piega, mossi la voce: "0 anime affannate, venite a noi parlar, s'altri nol niega!" 72 75 78 81 84 87 vegnon per l' aere, dal voler portate; cotali uscir de la schiera ov' e Dido, a noi venendo per I'aere maligno, si forte fu l' affettiioso grido. 84 87 con l' ali alzate e ferme al dolce nido . 72 Poscia ch'io ebbi '1 mio dottore udito nomar Ie donne antiche e ' cavalieri, pied mi giunse, e fui quasi smarrito. 69 Quali colombe dal disio chiamate 69 Vedi Paris, Tristano"; e piu di mille ombre mostrommi e nominommi a dito, ch'amor di nostra vita dipartille. 66 81 66 Elena vedi, per cui tanto reo tempo si volse, e vedi '1 grande Achille, che con amore al fine combatteo. 60 INFERNO 63 I e ruppe fede al cener di Sicheo; poi e Cleopatras lussuri'osa. L'altra e colei che s'ancise amorosa, Ell' e Semiramis, di cui si legge che succedette a Nino e fu sua sposa: tenne la terra che '1 Soldan corregge. 95 63 60 INFERNO so did these leave the troop where Dido is, coming to us through the malignant air, such force had my affectionate call. As doves, summoned by desire, their wings outstretched and motionless, move on the air, borne by their will to the sweet nest, As soon as the wind had bent them to us, I raised my voice: '0 wearied souls, if it is not forbidden, come speak with us.' And he: 'Once they are nearer, you will see: if you entreat them by the love that leads them, they will come.' I began: 'Poet, gladly would I speak with these two that move together and seem to be so light upon the wind.' When I heard my teacher name the ladies and the knights of old, pity overcame me and I almost lost my senses. 'See Paris, Tristan: and he showed me more than a thousand shades, naming as he pointed, whom love had parted from our life. 'See Helen, for whose sake so many years of ill rolled past. And see the great Achilles, who batded, at the last, with love. The next is wanton Cleopatra. 'Here is she who broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus and slew herself for love. 'She is Semiramis, of whom we read that she, once Ninus' wife, succeeded him. She held sway in the land the Sultan rules. V 96 I " " . 1 . .." . 114 117 Quando rispuosi, cominciai: "Oh lasso, quanti dolci pensier, quanto disio meno costoro al doloroso passo!" Poi mi rivolsi a loro e parla'io, e cominciai: "Francesca, i tuoi marnri a lagrimar mi fanno tristo e pio. 114 117 Then I turned to them again to speak and I began: 'Francesca,your torments make me weep for grief and pity, In answer I replied: 'Oh, how many sweet thoughts, what great desire, have brought them to this woeful pass!' the poet said:'What areyour thoughts?' III 108 'Love brought us to one death. Ca'inawaits'for him who quenched our lives.' These words were borne from them to us. fin che 'I poetami disse:"Che pense?" 108 105 'Love, which absolvesno one beloved &om loVing, seized me so strongly with his charm that, asyou see,it has not left me yet. III Amor condusse noi ad una morte. Caina attende chi a vita ci spense." Queste parole da lor ci fuor porte. .. 102 'Love, quick to kindle in the gentle heart, seized this man with the fair form taken from me. The way of it afRicts me still. And when I'd heard those two aftlicted souls I bowed my head and held it low until at last ".. 105 . " to peaceful flow, there I was born. 'On that shore where the river Po with all its tributaries slows 'We long to hear and speak of that which you desire to speak and know, here, while the wind has calmed. 'if the King of the universe were our friend we would pray that He might give you peace, since you show pity for our grievous plight. '0 living creature, gracious and kind, that come through somber air to visit us who stained the world with blood, V Quand'io intesi quell' anim~ offense, china' il viso,e tanto il tenni basso, . mi prese del costui piacer sl forte, che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona. che mi fu tolta; e 'I modo ancor m' offende. Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona, 102 Amor, ch'al cor gentil ratto s'apprende, prese costui de la bella persona per aver pace co' seguaci sui. 99 96 99 96 Di quel che udire e che parlar vi piace, noi udiremo e parleremo a voi, mentre che 'I vento, come fa, ci tace. 93 Siede la terra dove nata fui su la marina dove 'I Po discende 93 se fosse arnico il re de l'universo, noi pregheremmo lui de la tua pace, poi c'hai pied del nostro mal perverso. INFERNO 90 I 90 97 "0 animal grazloso e benigno che visitando vai per l'aere perso noi che tignemmo il mondo di sanguigno, INFERNO 98 I 142 138 135 132 129 126 123 120 INFERNO . i dubbiosi maggior disiri?" dolore E caddi come corpo morto cade. Mentre che l'uno spirto questo pjsse, l'altro piangea; sl che di pietade . . ,," . 10 venm men COSIcom 10 monsse. quel giorno piu non vi leggemmo avante." la bocca mi bascio tutto tremante. Galeotto fu 'llibro e chi 10 scrisse: Quando leggemmo il dislato riso esser basciato da cotanto amante, questi, che mai da me non fia diviso, ,,:. f' '.F I ii:. 'i PJ;{' , 142 138 135 132 126 123 Per piu fiate li occhi ci sospinse quella lettura, e scolorocci il viso; ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse. J 120 INFERNO 129 , 1 1 I I Noi leggiavamo un giorno per diletto di Lancialotto come amor 10 strinse; soli eravamo e sanza alcun sospetto. Ma s'a conoscer la prima radice del nostro amor tu hai cotanto affetto, diro come colui che piange e dice. che ricordarsi del tempo felice ne la miseria; e cio sa '1tuo dottore. E quella a me: "Nessun che conosceste Ma dinuni: al tempo d'i dolci sospiri, ache e come concedette amore 99 you with your hesitant desires?' While the one spirit said this the other wept, so that for pity I swooned as if in death. And down I fell as a dead body falls. 'all trembling, kissed me on my mouth. A Galeotto was the book and he that wrote it. That day we read in it no further.' 'When we read how the longed-for smile was kissed by so renowned a lover, this man, who never shall be parted ITom me, 'More than once that reading made our eyes meet and drained the color ITom our faces. Still, it was a single instant overcame us: 'One day, to pass the time in pleasure, we read of Lancelot, how love enthralled him. We were alone, without the least misgiving. 'But if you feel such longing to know the first root of our love, I shall tell as one who weeps in telling. And she to me: 'There is no greater sorrow than to recall our time of joy in wretchedness-and this your teacher knows. acquaint 'but tell me, in that season of sweet sighs, how and by what signs did Love V V 6. The precise way that Minos winds his tail about himself is a subject in . dispute. Does he flap it back and forth as many times as he wishes to indicate the appropriate Circle? Or does he wind it like a vine around a tree? See Mazz. 1977.I, pp. 104-5, for a brief summary of the debate and reasons to prefer the second hypothesis. 4-5. Padoan, in his gloss,argues that the present tense of the verbs in this tercet (sta,ringhia,essamina,giudica,manda,avvinghia)reflects the continuous condition of Minos's behavior. In fact all the verbs in the passage describing Minos's judgment, vv. 4-15, are in the present, as Dante leaves litde doubt but that he wants his readers to imagine themselves-unless a life of good conduct and God's grace combine to gain a betrer end-coming before that judgment in the future. This is the everlasting present of the moment of danmation, occurring, the text would make us feel, even as we read. For a study of the historical present in the Commedia,with attention (pp. 266-68) to this passage,see Sanguineti (Sang.19s8.1). Dante fairly often portrays infernal monsters and characters as having bestial traits. For this particular one, canine vociferation, see also Cerberus (Inf VI.43), Plutus (Inf VII.43), Hecuba (Inf XXX.20), Bocca degli Abati (Inf XXXIl.105; Inf XXXII. 108);Brutus and, Cassius in InfernoXXXIV (described as "barking" retrospectively at Par. VI.74). See discussion in Spag.1997.I,P. II2. For the conflation here in the figure of Minos 'Of the roles of Minos and of Rhadamanthus in Virgil's underworld, see Moor. 1896.I, pp. 183-84; the texts are found at Aeneid VI.432-433 and 566-S69. 1-3. A descent again marks a border, this time between the Limbus and the second Circle. Singleton's gloss argues that the presence here of Minos in judgment indicates that "real hell" begins only now, that Limbo is"marginal." It is true, however, that the Limbus is inside the gate of hell. Not only does "real hell" begin there, it in a sense begins with those who are barely inside the gate, the neutrals. They are so pusillanimous that they are not even allowed "a proper burial," as it were. One may not even say,as some have, that only with the second Circle do we begin to witness actual punishment being meted out for past sins, since the neutrals are indeed tormented by stinging insects as a fit punishment for their feckless conduct (Inf 1II.6S-66). INFERNO INFERNO V a moment £rom his incessant judgment to offer this ; warning. How kindly are his intentions? Most commentators seem to "ili,ink he is the most "humane" of the infernal demons, and even courtefptXS'toDante. However, and as Padoan points out (in his commentary), his ;~caIlinginto question, albeit indirecdy, the competence of Virgil as guide .tll\! entranc~teals ..1$<l19.. Minos, seeing a rarity, to say the least-a living man before him at 1t\.1! ,d/:ispended at v. 3),the tense moves back to the past definite: "Minos said." 8. Dante presents Minos as a parody of a confessor meting out penance to a sinner (see Beno.1983.1). The word confessamarks the beginning of this canto's concern with confession, which will be parodied again when Dante "confesses" Francesca (vv. II8-I20). For now we are perhaps meant to ruminate on the perversity of sinners. In the world above they were offered, through this office of the Church, the possibility of confession and remission of sins. We may infer that those sinners whom we find in hell probably did not avail themselves of their great opportunity. fWe never hear the word "confession" on the lips of any of them ex['cept for Guido da Montefeltro [Inf XXVII.83]. And he, having confessed and become a friar, then sins again and is condemned. His second [and vain] confession is made, too late, in hell and only to Dante.) This moment offersa brief but cogent vision of human perversity: in their lives all those whom we see in hell had the opportunity to be rid of their sins by owning up to them in confession. They apparendy did not do so. Here, in hell, ~whatis the very first thing that they do? They make full disclosure of their dUns.. . to Minos. (1, 9t12. The mechanical nature of Minos's judgment-he is a judge who tenders judgment with his tail, not his head-underlines the lack of authority of the demons in hell: Minos is merely doing God's work. Hell ispresented as a perfecdy functioning bureaucracy. If some of Satan's minions are at times rebellious (e.g., the rebel angels in Inf IX, the winged cremonsin XXI-XXIII), they' are so in vain. Hell, too, is a part of God's kingdom. ~. io/1. Once the narrated action of Dante's descent continues (it had been 7. Sinners are "ill-begotten" in that their end is this, eternal damnation, because of their sins (and not because their procreation in itself so fated them). Padoan, commenting on this verse, points out that Dante himself is later described as"bene nato" (wellborn)-Par. V.II5. I f I 11 .. I INFERNO rnina (literally, "ruin"). What precisely, does it mean? Two discussions of the commentary tradition are available, the first by Letterio Cassata (Cass.197I.1), the second, still more c:omplete, by Nicolo Mineo (ED, vol. 4, 1973),pp. 1056-57.Mineo points out that there have been six identifiable schools of interpretation for the meaning of la rnina.Unfortunately; there are severe problems associated with all of them. Many American and some Italian students of the problem have been drawn to Singleton's solu.,. tion (commentary to Inj XII.32 and XII.36-45): Dante suppresses the meaning of the noun here only to reveal it at Inferno XII.32-41, where' questarnina(v.32) refers to the crack in the wall of hell made by the earth~ quake that accompanied Christ's crucifixion. However, it does remain 34. One of the most debated verses in this canto because of the word 26-3J. The "hellscape" that is established by the sounds in the darkness (once again Dante's eyes need to adjust to the deepening shadows) mates well with the sin of lust: darkness, passionate winds in conflict that bear their victims in unceasing agitation in their storm of passion. For a passage that might have had some effect on Dante's shaping of this scene, see II Peter 2:10-22, the Apostle Peter's denunciation of the lustful. 25. Here the present tense is an example of the "historical" (or "vivid") present. 22-24. Virgil obviously understands that Minos's words were meant to scare Dante off (and perhaps he also understands the implicit insult to himself contained in them). For the repetition here of the identical verses (23 and 24) used to quell Charon's rebellious desires see Inj III.95-96 and note. It seems clear that Virgil would not have used them again had they not been efficacious the first time, that is, had Charon not relented and rowed Dante across (see note to Inj III. 136). 20. Commentators customarily note that here Dante builds his line out of two sources: Aeneid VI. 126: "Facilis descensus Averno" (the descentto the underworld is easy [but not the return from there]); Matth. 7:13: "spatiosa via est, quae ducit ad perditionem" (broad is the way that leads to perdition) . ("beware. . . whom you trust"), is evidently meant to unsettle Dante. He would obviously prefer not to have such visitors. 102 58-67. This is the second important "catalogue" that we find in Inferno. jI1'hefirst named the forty identified inhabitants of Limbo (see note to Inj '(I¥.102-at the end of that note). In the Circle of lust we find these seven (identifIed sinners and two more: Francesca and Paolo, who brii1g the total to nine. As Curtius argued quite some time ago, given the importance for ".:Qante of the number nine (the "number" of his beloved Beatrice), it s$emslikely that these nine souls who died for love are associated with her 4¥:opposition (Curt. 1948.1,p. 369). It is also notable that Dante's catalogues are unlike (and pronouncedly ,46-49. The group in the second simile of the canto is more select, the fstars" of lustful living. Where the starlings are as though without indi>ridualidentities, the "masses" of the lustful, as it were, each of these has a particularity and a certain fame, and is thus worthy of being treated as exemplary. (For a discussion of exemplary literature in the middle ages see gelc.1989.1, with special attention to Dante, pp. 195-227.) Padoan (com,mentary), on the other hand, suggests that this second group is distinguished from the first on moral grounds, since they all died by their own band or at the hand of others, and are as a result more heavily punished. I:he evidence for such a view does not seem present in the text. . ~ For the cranes see Aeneid X.264-266 as well as Statius, Thebaid ;jc~1I-16. 40-43. The first vast group of the "ordinary" lovers is compared to a flock of starlings,with their ragged, darting, sky-covering flight on a winter's day. (T. S. Eliot's typist and house agent's clerk in The WasteLAnd,vv. 222-248, would eventually be assigned here, one imagines.) "40-49. The first two similes of the canto (and see the third one, vv. 82-85) associate the lustful with birds, a natural association given their aondition, driven by the wind, and one in accord with the medieval view that lust is the property of beings less than human, and indeed frequently of birds. extremely dubious, as many rightly point out, that Dante would, for the only time in his poem, hold back the reference necessary to a word's clear ,literal sense for seven cantos. We agree with Mazzoni's tentative judgment (Mazz. 1977.1,pp. 106-8) that the meaning of rninahere is not "ruin," but "fury,violence," as in the impetus of the wind that drives these sinners. I I I I I i I INFERNO 61-62. Dante's use of periphrasis (circumlocution) represents one of his favored "teaching techniques," in which he (generally, but certainly not always) offers his readers fairly easy problems to solve. Use of periphrasis has a second effect: it tends to emphasize the importance of the person or thing so presented. The "Dido" that we scribble in our margins, remembering that her husband's name was Sichaeus, stands out ttom the page, partly because it is we who have supplied the name. That Dido is the quintessential presence in this "flock" is underlined by v. 85,where she is the only named presence inoit,having previously been alluded to only indirectly. 58. Semiramis was the legendary queen of Assyria (Dante has confused the name of her capital, Babylon, for that of the Egyptian city, and thus misplaced her realm). She was supposed to have legalized incest in order to carry out her sexual liaison with her, son. °For more about her see Samu.1944.1 and Shap.1975.I. so in this case) later humanist catalogues of the famous, which thrive on additions,in displayof "erudition": themorethebetterseemsto be the motto of such writers. Dante, on the other hand, trequently sculpts his groupings to a purpose. One of the insistentpoetic topoithat we find in medievalwritersand certainly in Dante-is that of translatio.This is the notion that certain ideas or institutions have their major manifestations in movement through historical time and space. The tWo most usually deployed examples of this toposare translatioimperii (the movementof imperialgreatnessttom Troy to Rome to "new Rome"-wherever that may be in a given patriotic writer's imagination [in Dante's case the empireless Rome of his own d,iy]) and translatiostudii (the development of serious intellectual pursuit from its birth in Athens, to its rebirth in Rome, to its new home [paris, according to some, in Dante's day]). It is perhaps useful to think of Dante's catalogues as reflecting a similar sense of history, of movement through time and space.In this one, a sort of translatio amoris,we havethree triads: Semiramis (incestuous paramour of her own son), Dido (partner of Aeneas, abandoned by him), Cleopatra (lover of Julius Caesar and of Mark Antony), all three lustful queens of the Afi.-icancoast; Helen and Paris (Greek and Trojan lovers whose lusts brought down a kingdom) with Achilles (Greek lover of the Trojan woman Polyxena); Tristan (a man caught up in destructive passion for King Mark's wife, Isolde, in the court of Cornwall, as we move into Europe and toward the present); Francesca and Paolo (lovers from the recent past [ca. 1285]in Rimini, here in Italy). 104 IN FER N 0 V v~. To be "light upon the ahd Paolo's noble ability to others, it indicates that other shades by the winds o wind" is, to some readers, a sign of Francesca's to triumph over their dismal surroundings; they are driven even more wildly than some of passion. This first detail begins a series of '71. Dante refers to the great figures of the olden days with strikingly .anachronistic terms, the medieval "ladies and knights" emphasizing the o(;ontinuityof the historical record. No "humanist" writer would be likely to use such a locution that so dramatically erases the gap betWeen classical aritiquity and the present age. tiI-') " not coincidental. Dante was lost "midway in the journey of our life" and, we will later learn, some of his most besetting problems arose trom misplaced affection. He was, indeed, near death as a result of his transgressions. The repetition of the word smarritoto describe Dante's distraught condition also recalls the first tercet of the poem. Here we can see an emerging pattern in his reuse of key words ttom previous contexts in order to enhance the significance of a current situation in the poem. :69-72. di nostravita.The echo of the first line of the poem is probably 65. It is important to remember that Dante, Greekless, had not read Homer, who only became available in Latin translation much later in the fourteenth century. His Achilles is not the hero of the Iliad known to some of us,but the warrior-lover portrayed by Statius and others. 63. For Dante's knowledge that Cleopatra committed suicide by having an aspbite her,see Paradiso VI.76-78. 62. Virgil's similar one-line description of Dido's "infidelity" occurs at Aeneid IV552, where she admits that she had not "kept the faith promised to the ashes of Sichaeus." Aeneas. She does not kill herself ttom despair (as do the suicides in the thirteenth canto), but rather to give expression to her need for her loveror so Dante would seem to have believed. 61. Dido's presence here trequently upsets readers who think that she ought to be found in Canto XIII, since she committed suicide. It is clear that Dante thinks of the psychology of sin with °acertain sophistication, isolating the impulse, the deeper motive, that drives our actions ttom the actions themselves. In Dido's case this is her uncontrolled desire for 105 I I INFERNO V wedding day is not difficult to imagin~. Commentators point out that her adulterous conduct was a lot more calculated than Dante presents it (she and Paolo, also married, both had children and she had then been married ,for ten years). The fact is, however, that Dante's version of the story,makes her conduct seem about as understandable as possible, an effort on which the character herself spends her copsiderable resources of persuasion. The beginning of her highly rhetorical speech reflects the tradition testa of Rimini, who was crippled. History or legend has it that the marriage was arranged when his younger brother, Paolo, was sent to make the pledge of betrothal. Francesca, seeing him, was under the impression that it was this handsome man who was to.be her husband. Her delusion on her 88. Francesca da Polenta of Ravenna was affianced to Giovanni Mala- 82-84. The third simile involving birds in this canto (and there are only three similes in it) compares the two lovers to doves. As Shoaf (Shoa.1975.1) has demonstrated, there is a "dove program" in the Comedy, beginning with the Venereal doves reflected here, passing through the doves at their feeding in PurgatorioII.124-129, and finishing in the reference to James and Peter as "doves" of the Holy Spirit in Paradiso XX\1.U9-121. Dante's doves here seem to reflect both Aeneid \1.213-217 and Georgics1.414. 80. The protagonist's adjective for the two sinners (they are "anime riffannate") may well be meant to remind us of the only other time we find that adjective in Inferno(InfI.22), when Dante is described as being like a man who has escaped &om the sea "with laboring breath" (conlena aifannata). If that is true, it further binds the character's sense of identity with these smners. the rhetorical skill of I.03. The dicta of Andreas Capellanus are often cited as lying behind Francesca's speech (e.g., De amore II, 8): "Amor nil posset amori denegare" debated. The wording of the text allows, in itself, either interpretation. Our translation therefore leaves the meaning ambiguous, as does, indeed, Ithe original, whatever Dante's intentions. ,(commentary and Pado.1993.1, pp. 189-200) argues persuasively that ,she refers in fact to the brutal manner of her death. This verse is much '102. Against Pagliaro (Pagl.1967.1), pp. 136-49, who argues that Francesca is referring to the way in which she was made to fall in love, Padoan J' Francesca, who presses her case with listening Dante: it was Love's fault that she and Paolo fell into carnal passion. "Amor" appears three times as the first word in a tercet after an end-stopped line and thus must be capitalized. It seems also reasonable to believe that Francesca is here referring 'to her "god," the Lord of Love, Cupid, whose name is "Amor." He is the only god she seems to own, since, by her account (v.91), the "King of the 'universe" is not her friend. tercet, "Amor . . . Amor . . . Amor . . . ," underlines 100-106. The use of anaphora (repetition) here at the beginning of each 91. For the source of this verse in Cavalcanti's line "Se Merce fosse arnica a' miei disiri" (Were Mercy friendly to my desires) see Contini (Cont.1976.1),P.155. 91-93. Francesca's locutions are revealing and instructive: God is portrayed as having turned away &om the two lovers, while Dante is welcomed for not having done so, for feeling pieta for them. This canto has one of its "key words" in amore,which occurs fully eleven times in it (vv.61, 66, 69, 78,100,103,106, II9, 125, 128, 134).But this word, "pity," is crucial as well (vv.72, 93, II7, 140, and, in the continuing narrative of the next canto, VI.2). Dante is filled with pity for lost lovers. Should he be? That may be the central question facing a reader of InfernoV (see further discussion, below [note to v. 142]). 107 76-78. Virgil's only complete tercet in the second half of the canto (see note to vv. 109-117) is laconic, as though he were aware of the emotions felt by Dante (which he himself had so devastatingly presented in Aeneid rv, the story of love's destructive power over Dido) and realized there was nothing he had said or could say that might rein in his excited pupil. INFERNO of classicalrhetoric that would have a speaker first seek to gain the sympathy of the audience, a device referred to as captatiobenevo/entiae,the capturing of the goodwill of one's auditors. For noteworthy earlier examples of captatiosee Beatrice's first words to Virgil (Inf 11.58-60) and Virgil's first words to her (Inf 11.76-81). I challenging phrasings that invite the reader to consider closely the ambiguities of the entire episode. For a summary of the issues at stake here, see MazZ.1977.1,pp. 124-28. And for a thorough consideration of the history of interpretation of the episode of Francesca see A. E. Quaglio, "Francesca" (ED, vol. 3, 1971,pp. 1-13). 106 . t If I I N FER N 0 These nine verses contain the "drama" of the canto in nuce. U8-120. In 1972, Georgia Nugent, then a student at Princeton, pointed out that Dante's question mimics the questions used by confessors to deeply by Francesca's beautiful speec~; Virgil attempts to spur him to thoughtful appreciation of what he has seen and heard; the second tercet records his more emotional than rational outburst: he is totally sympathetic to the lovers, and now, in the third, he turns to tell Francesca that he is filled with pity for her. She has won him over. Some twenty years ago Dante's tearful state (v. II7) reminded Elizabeth Raymond and Susan Saltrick (both Princeton '78) of the tears Augustine shed for Dido-see Pine. I96I.I, p. 34 (ConfessionsI. 13). 0 Dante's pensive condition in the first tercet reflects his being moved 109-U7. just that-and he does several times have sinners tell of the impending arrival of still others in a given Circle in ways that clearly call for acceptance (see note to Inf XXXII.54-69). And so we are left wondering at Francesca's remark, and should at least keep this question open. It seems better to view her prediction as a wish stated as a fact than as a fact. However, for an example of the view that accepts Francesca's predictive placement of her husband in hell see Bald.1988.I, p. 1070. Iannucci suggests that Gianciotto may have been conceived by Dante as being misshapen and lame like Vulcan, the cuckolded husband of Venus (lann.I980.I, p. 345). 0 had Dante wanted to guaranteeit, it would have taken a line or so to do 107. Francesca, whose chief rhetorical strategy is to remove as much blame fi:om herself as she is able, finding other forces at fault wherever possible (e.g., Paolo's physical beauty, her despicable husband, the allure of a French romance), here tries °toeven the score with her husband. She may be damned, but he, as the killer of °hiswife and brother, will be much lower down, in the ninth Circle. Since Gianciotto, who killed them in 1283-84, lived until 1304,his shade could not be seen by Dante in Ca"ina. We have, as a result, no basis on which to question her opinion. However, (Love can deny love nothing at all). A closer parallel exists between a line in a love poem by Cino da Pistoia and this one: "A nullo amato amar perdona amore" ("Love allows no one beloved not to love," cited by Enrico Mestica [commentary]). But we do not know if Dante is echoing Cino or Cino, Dante. 108 IN FER N 0 V 0 182: Francesca's account of her and Paolo's conquest by Amor is "corrected" by a later text, Dante's reference to God as the "punto che mi vinse" (Par.XXX.II), where Dante is, like Paolo, "constrained" by love ~sirinse[v. 128]; ParadisoXXX, 15: amor mi costrinse)-but his desire is for not for a fleshly liaison. The passagein Paradisois clearly meant to rdlect negatively, not only on the amorous activity of Francesca and [:Paolo, but on the protagonist's reactions to it. The god of Love and so we will -t1irancesca are being played against God and Beatrice-or ~\understand once we reach the last cantica.For the resonance of this selft~ 0 01.27-128. In the Old French Lancelotqf the Lake, King Arthur's queen, Guinevere, betrayed her husband with the knight Lancelot. Much has been written on the sources of this scene.Work in English includes articles by Carozza (Caro.I967.I) and Maddox (Madd.I996.I). And for a possible link to the love story of Eloise and Abelard see Dronke (Dron.I975. I). 123. There is debate as to whether the word dottore (here "teacher") refers to Boethius or Virgil. Most prefer the second hypothesis. We should realize that either choice forces upon us a somewhat ungainly hypothesis, the first that Francesca knows Boethius well (it is only several years since Dante had characterized the Consolationqf Philosophyas a work known only to few [Conv. lI.xii.2]), the second that she recognizes the Roman poet Virgil without having had him identified by Dante. Since Virgil is referred to by Dante as "il mio dottore" in this very canto (v. 70), it seems the wiser choice to accept the notion that Dante, taking advantage of poetic license, allows Francesca to recognize Virgil. 121-126. "This [the first tercet] imitates Virgil. . . but literally translates Boetius" (Taaf.1822.I, p. 326). See the Consolationqf PhilosophyII, pro4: "in onmi 0adversitate fortunae infelicissirnum est genus infortunii fuisse felicem" (among fortune's many adversities the most unhappy kind is once to have been happy). For the Virgilian resonances (Aen. 11.3-13), see the fairly detailed account in Holl. 1969.1,pp. lID-II. ascertain the nature of a penitent's sins. Here, we may reflect, Dante is behaving more like a priest in the so-called "religion of Love" than a Christian confessor. See the earlier discussion of confession in this canto, note to v. 8. 109 I I INFERNO 140. We now realize that during the entire episode we have not heard a word trom Paolo. Dante will return to this strategy when he twice again involves pairs of sinners in suffering together, Diomedes with Ulysses in InfernoXXVI, Ruggieri with Ugolino in InfernoXXXIII. In each case one of the two is a silent partner. We can try to imagine what an eternity of silence in the company of the voluble being who shares the culpability for one's damnation might be like. (see discussion, above, in notes t<;> vv, 8 and II8-120). 138. Francesca, reading a book that leads to her "conversion" to sin and death in the company of a man named Paul, is the "negative antitype" of St. Augustine, reading a book by Paul that leads to his conversion (Confessions VIII.xii [pine. I96I. I, p. I78]-see Swing for what seems to be the first observation of this striking connection [Swin.1962.I], p. 299, and further discussion by Hollander [Holl.I969. I], pp. II2-I3). Augustine is converted by reading a passage in St. Paul (Romans 13:13-14): "Let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Here, we may reflect, Francesca reads a book and is "converted," by doing so, to the lust that leads to death. And if Augustine was converted by reading a man named Paul, Francesca gives herself to adultery with a man bearing the same name. As Swing has pointed out, Francesca's last words, quelgiornopiu nonvi leggemmo avante(that day we read in it no further), seem more than coincidentallyclose to Augustine'sneeultra volui legere (and I did not wish to read any further). For support of the idea that Dante is here thinking of this pivotal moment in Augustine's spiritual autobiography, see Scot.I979.I, p. 14.If we are meant to think of Augustine's Confessioneshere, that would round off this canto'sconce'ni with confession 137. Once again Francesca blames another for their predicament, this time the go-between, Gallehault, in the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere as well as its author. By now we have come to see--or should have-how often she lays her problems at the doors of others. At least in part because of Dante's r~ference to him here, Gallehault became synonymous with "pander." citation see Holl. 1988.1,pp. 7-8, discussing the contributions of Contini (Cont.I976.I), p. 206; Hollander (Holl.I983.I), pp. 139-40; and Dronke (Dron.I989.I),P.30. 110 I INFERNO V things at once. As such, it is able to express and to judge romantic love at dthe same time" (pogg.I957.I, p. 358). In America, the role of the "rigid moralizer" has been played, in recent times, most notably by Cassell (Cass.I984.I), with similar responses trom most of his reviewers. For Mazzoni and many, perhaps most, contemporary readers, the canto needs to be responded to more generously than the "moralizers" would like. And, to be sure, there is at times a certain perhaps unfortunately zealous tone in understandably tend to align themselves with the love that Francesca emblematizes and/or the pity that Dante exhibits; moralizing ones with the firmness that an Augustinian reader would feel. Virgil perhaps, given his silence through most of the second half of the canto (once Francesca appears on the scene he speaks only two words: "che pense?" [what are your thoughts?-v. III]), would then seem to be trying to rein in Dante's enthusiastic involvement with this enticing shade. Yet even as theologicallyoriented a reader as Mazzoni (Mazz.I977.I, pp. 125-26) finds it important to distance himself trom such "rigid moralizing" as is found in Busn.I922.I and Mont. 1962.I. A view similar to Mazzoni's is found in a much-cited essay by Renato Poggioli: "The 'romance' of Paolo and . Francesca becomes in Dante's hands an 'antiromance,' or rather, both Italian prose version of the stories of Arthur's court, LA tavolaritonda, XLVII, where Tristan's response to Isolde's death is described as follows: "e cadde S1come corpo morto." The protagonist is thus compared to the victim of overwhelming passion. His fainting marks him here as unable to control his pity, as it had had the same effect with respect to fear two cantos earlier (Inf III. 136). The fifth Canto of Infernois the cause of continuing debate. Where are we to locate ourselves as witnesses to these scenes? Romantic readers 142. Torraca, commenting on this verse, was perhaps the first commentator to note the Arthurian material that lies behind Dante's famous line: the 141. Dante's death-like swoon has him experiencing something akin to the death in sensuality experienced by Francesca and Paolo. This is to be at odds with the view of Pietrobono (commentary), who argues that Dante's death-like collapse mirrors his attaining of the state urged by Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, chapter 6, wherein the Christian "dies" to sin in imitation of Christ (e.g., "For he that is dead is treed trom sin"-Romans 6:7). It would rather seem that this is exactly not the state attained by the protagonist at this point in the poem. Maddox (Madd.I996.I), pp. II9-22, draws a parallel between Dante's fainting spell and that suffered by Galehot in the prose LAnceiot. III I I I INFERNO the words of such critics. On the other hand, their views seem only to accord with the overall aims of the poet and his poem. Francesca is, after all, in hell. The love she shares with Paolo was and is a "mad love" (for this concept see Aval.197S.1).The text clearly maintains that the lustful punished here "make reason subject to desire" (v. 39). And so, where some would find pity the middle ground for the reader to occupy, between the sinful lust of Francesca and Paolo and the "rigid moralizers," others, including this commentator, argue that it is pity itself that is here at fault. Amore and pieta are no doubt among the "key words" of the canto (see above, note to vv. 91-93); that does not mean that they must function in opposition to one another; they may be versions of the same emotion. Indeed, if we see that Francesca's aim is precisely to gain Dante's pity, and that she is successful in doing so, we perhaps ought to question his offering of it. Sympathy for the damned, in the Inferno,is nearly always and nearly certainly the sign of a wavering moral disposition. 112 Virgil: he will wake no more until the last trumpet Virgil on the increase of eternal pain for the damned they talk until they are ready to descend: Plutus 94~9 112-115 1Oe-11I 91~3 88~o Ciacco: all are in hell, as Dante will perhaps see Ciacco would like to be "remembered to those above he returns to his hebetude Dante recovers trom his syncope to find a new place the third Circle: cold downpour on stinking ground Cerberus presides, barking; he Raysthe sinners Cerberus's opposition and Virgil's "sop" for him simile: dog ravenously gulping food Dante and Virgil pass over the prone shades Florence: Ciacco recognizes Dante and presents self Dante does not recognize him, transfigured by pain Ciacco identifies himself and his sin: gluttony Dante asks his views on the likely future of the city Ciacco: first the Whites, then the Blacks, will win the just are few, the sinners many Dante wants to know the afterlife of five townsmen VI 85-87 7~84 73,6 64,2 58-63 49"'""57 43-48 38-42 34-37 28-33 22-27 13-21 ~12 1-6 OUTLINE INFERNO